THE one certainty for Michael Clarke’s Australian tourists to Zimbabwe is they won’t have to worry about monkeys stealing their breakfast while their backs are turned.

That happened to former Test great Jason Gillespie when he coached the Midwest Rhinos in far flung Kwekwe.

Gillespie coped with no running water for two months, daily power cuts and even got his wife to make sandwiches for his team when the funding ran out, challenges far removed from the five star life of the touring cricket professional.

Clarke and company will have a more orderly life in the nation’s capital Harare during their one-day tour but will not be fully insulated from the stresses of life in the financially stricken country.

The hotel where they are staying, a once-decadent Sheraton under former ownership when Zimbabwe was in far better shape two decades ago, is not terrible but not what it was.

A guest who stayed there recently advised the Australians to leave their room early for the team bus because last week only one of the four lifts was working.

The hotel can also have its water cut off but Australian players will be spared searching for the bottled variety because a giant water tank on the roof is used in emergencies.

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